"Loyalist Artillery" Topic

Easy question, really – did the Loyalists have any artillery units in the field?

The Queen's Rangers had a small section of gunners during the Southern campaigns – a 3-pdr and an "Amusette". They were given an RA sergeant to train them, but I think all of the gunners were QR personnel. Several other Loyalist units in the South had swivel guns with them, mentioned in reports of the action at Eutaw and the siege of Ninety Six.

Also, one of the six original battalions of the New Jersey Volunteers – the 2nd – was selected to serve as matrosses with the RA from April 1777 to November 1779, at which point they returned to being infantry and were redistributed among the 1st and 4th Battalions.

Did the RA in the AWI absorb any Loyalist recruits?

It's possible; unfortunately, you'd need to check the muster rolls and look for singleton recruits, then cross-check with arrivals of reinforcements from the UK in order to rule that out as a possible source (transfers from other units would normally be recorded as such). The Royal Artillery and Royal Irish Artillery tended to be more particular about their recruits, because of the nature of the work requiring men of higher intelligence (due to the inherent danger of handling gunpowder) and physical strength for moving the guns. There are several remarks about the fine appearance of artillery personnel throughout the 18th Century and Napoleonic period.

Despite being frowned upon, all the Regular units stationed in America prior to the war did so – in fact, there was a major influx in 1771 when there was a threat of war with Spain – and I would imagine any potential recruit turning up during the war would have been even more welcome. Back then, "American" accents were less distinctive than today, so a recruits local origins would have been less obvious. If a man showed promise, and especially if he had served with the artillery as a mattross, he would be welcomed.

Have a look at this blog; the author is very helpful, so feel free to email him your question. This particular link is to someone who was probably a local guy, but check out the other entries.

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The Loyalist Institute site refers to a unit called "The Georgia Artillery", formed in 1781:

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First I'd ever heard of them – good spot.

Plenty of artillery was captured at Charleston (391 guns). I will re-read the notations again but i think most of them were assigned to various towns and outposts garrisoned by the British in the South.

Most likely these garrison guns would have been manned by Loyalists.

For example at the Siege of Augusta on Spet 1780, there are no British regular troopslisted among the british defenders. Nor was the british legion there.Only Loyalist units with 4 artillery guns listed among the garrison: 2 x 1pdr + 1 x 4pdr and 1 x 6pdr.

Also at Hanging Rock Aug 5th 1780, the were no british Regular troops yet 2 x 3pdr guns were listed among the British troops.

It should be noted that in Novak's OBs these guns are not listed as 'Royal Artillery' which is the case in most battles.